-
Covid-19: Hong Kong offering Chinese medicine to treat patients with mild symptoms
Covid-19 patients at the makeshift hospital at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo will be offered the option to receive Chinese medicine treatments starting Tuesday, a Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson announced at a routine press briefing Monday. The facility houses patients with mild or no symptoms. A panel of experts from Hong Kong’s three Chinese medicine university faculties have designed a treatment programme to be prescribed by the authority’s Chinese practitioners, the authority’s Chinese medicine department Rowena Wong said: “Patient enrolment is on voluntary basis. The services will be ar...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Covid-19: Victory for campaigners as Hong Kong hospitals to allow partners to accompany mothers giving birth
Partners of women giving birth in Hong Kong public hospitals will be allowed to stay with them during the delivery as long as both have tested negative for Covid-19 beforehand, the Hospital Authority announced Friday in a change of heart welcomed by expectant mothers. The new arrangement will begin next Tuesday, the chairman of the authority’s Coordinating Committee in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. Au Yeung Kam-chuen, told a press briefing. Accompanying fathers will have to have tested negative for Covid-19 within 72 hours before delivery, while the expectant mother will be tested upon admis...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Covid-19: Schools to stay closed until Lunar New Year as Hong Kong extends social distancing restrictions
Coronavirus social distancing measures were extended in Hong Kong on Monday as the city continues to see dozens of new infections per day. Students will not go back to school for face-to-face teaching until after the Lunar New Year holiday, the government has announced. Social distancing rules such as the dine-in ban after 6pm and two-person gathering limit have also been extended for two more weeks to January 20. The city recorded 53 coronavirus infections on Monday, 43 cases were locally transmitted, and six of which had unknown sources. Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said that it...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Covid-19: Compulsory testing after outbreak at Kowloon hospital ward, as Hong Kong sees 61 new cases & 2 deaths
Visitors and staffers at a hospital in Kwun Tong were told to undergo compulsory coronavirus testing after 19 cases were recorded in one of the wards. The city reported 61 infections on Monday, with 60 locally transmitted cases – 19 of which had unknown sources. A mobile specimen collection station was set up near the United Christian Hospital on Monday, after the government issued a compulsory testing order for visitors and staffers who had been to the hospital’s palliative care and medical ward 2D or the intensive care unit. Leading microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung visited the site on Saturday,...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Hong Kong’s measures against Covid-19? More effective at stamping out protests than the pandemic
Here we are again: a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections and a fourth wave of new government measures to combat the virus. The problem is that official action can only be effective where there is trust in government – pause here for hollow laughter. As matters stand, the extraordinary self-discipline and caution of Hongkongers has been the driving force keeping the infection rate impressively below that of other jurisdictions. The muddled, politically charged and downright incompetent response of the failing Lam administration stands in stark contrast. This matters because a lack of official cr...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
How Covid-19 curbs at Hong Kong public hospitals can be cruel for expectant mothers
Holly Wong was in her 35th week of pregnancy. As she looked back on the birth of her son, now aged two, she knew the labour would not be easy. “For my first child, I had a very long labour for three days and it got quite complicated. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my husband’s support,” said Wong, 36, a yoga teacher. But the ordeal would become even more challenging when she learnt from a mothers’ support group on WhatsApp that because of Covid-19, Hong Kong’s public hospitals no longer accept the presence of companions during delivery. “For me, it’s quite traumatic to think about ...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority will recover wages from staff who went on strike over gov’t Covid-19 handling
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority (HA) has said it will recover salary paid out to staff who were absent from duty during a Covid-19-related medics strike from February 3 to 7. The authority added that there will be no further human resources action against them.In an email sent to all staff on Friday, the chair of the authority Henry Fan announced the decision was made following careful consideration at an HA board meeting, taking into account labour laws, human resources policies, contract obligations and staff morale: “The Authority believes such an arrangement is a reasonable, lawful and fair...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Hong Kong medics disheartened by political pressure in hospitals are planning to leave the city
Paul and Kathy never imagined they would one day be studying late into the night, hours after their work shifts ended, to prepare to obtain medical qualifications overseas so they can leave Hong Kong for good.Even though he has long been qualified to practise as an emergency room doctor in Hong Kong, Paul has recently been spending another three to four hours revising medical textbooks, after his work shift at a public hospital ended.He hopes to obtain the equivalent qualification in emergency medicine in the UK, so he can obtain full registration there as a doctor and thus have the option to ...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Covid-19: Almost 3,000 Hongkongers sent wrong test results by SMS, as stricter rules come into force
The Hospital Authority (HA) on Wednesday apologised for a technical mixup which sent false negative results via SMS to individuals who had actually tested positive for the coronavirus.The bungle was linked to an error in the SMS delivery system which swapped the personal details of participants, according to a government statement. The gaffe led to individuals being sent other people’s test results. The SMS delivery process is run by a government contractor.The discrepancy has affected 2,972 participants since July and resulted in six individuals being notified of negative test results when th...
Hong Kong Free Press
-
Covid-19: Hong Kong health chief says 7,000 medics who went on strike will be handled with ‘established mechanism’
Hong Kong health chief has said that 7,000 medical workers who went on strike earlier this year over the government’s response to Covid-19 will be “handled with an established mechanism.”Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said in the Legislative Council on Wednesday that the Hospital Authority (HA) is currently looking through the responses from medics who went on strike in February after they were asked for an explanation.The Alliance initiated the strike between February 3 and 7 after Chief Executive Carrie Lam refused to attend the negotiations.Aside from border closures, they urged ...
Hong Kong Free Press